Waste plastics may contain polyvinylchloride (PVC) and/or polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC).
Through a pyrolysis process, waste plastics can be converted to gas and liquid products. These liquid products may contain paraffins, iso-paraffins, olefins, naphthenes, and aromatic components along with organic chlorides in concentrations of hundreds of ppm. However, the liquid products of a pyrolysis process (pyrolysis oils) might not be used as a feedstock for steam crackers due to feed requirements of very low concentrations of chlorine and limited olefin content. Thus, there is an ongoing need to develop methods for producing hydrocarbon feedstocks derived from waste plastics to meet certain steam cracker feed requirements.